21 January 2003

JOURNALISTS FORM REGIONAL FREE-EXPRESSION GROUP


Journalists and press-freedom groups from Central Africa have launched a new organisation whose aims include the monitoring of free expression developments in the region.

Close to 50 participants met in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) capital, Kinshasa, from 5-7 December 2002 and formally adopted a founding charter for the Central African Media Organisation (Organisation des medias en Afrique centrale, OMAC).

Participants elected Modeste Mutinga to be OMAC's first president, while the Secretary General will be Burundian journalist Cyprien Ndikumana. OMAC's Council will include M'Baya Tshimanga of Journalist in Danger (Journaliste en danger, JED) and Cameroonian journalist Pius Njawe. JED is a founding member of OMAC.

The new group says it hopes to act as a regional body whose activities will include issuing alerts on free expression, an idea that arose out of a World Press Freedom Day conference organised by UNESCO in Windhoek, Namibia, in May 2001.

For information, contact Modeste Mutinga at: omac_10@yahoo.fr">mailto:omac_10@yahoo.fr">omac_10@yahoo.fr



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